LOS ANGELES — An AIDS (search) scare prompted adult movie companies to halt production and bar dozens of performers from the set after two actors tested HIV-positive.

At least 45 actors and actresses were under a voluntary work quarantine and about a dozen companies were adhering to a voluntary two-month moratorium until new HIV tests are completed, industry experts said.

"It's very scary," said Mary Carey, a porn star who ran for governor of California last fall. "This is kind of a wake-up call for everybody."

Carey said she had not worked with the infected actor but as a precaution, she was canceling a lesbian porn shoot.

The last industry HIV scare was in 1999, when a male actor tested positive for the disease. He no longer performs and no other actors were infected. Before that, a male actor infected five women in 1998.

A nonprofit health group was trying to identify performers who had sex with the two HIV-infected actors as well as a "second generation" who slept with their movie sex partners.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health and health officer for Los Angeles County (search), said the agency did not consider the HIV case a threat to public health "at this point."

"I think in general, they've done an appropriate job in terms of the quarantine measures taken," he said.

However, he said, the discovery shows that screening programs are not perfect and the only way to prevent AIDS "is not to have unprotected sex."

Sharon Mitchell of the nonprofit Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (search) said the male performer apparently contracted HIV last month while filming in Brazil. He tested positive for HIV on Friday and a follow-up test on Monday confirmed it.

On Thursday, Mitchell confirmed that one of about a dozen women the man had sex with in U.S. films also had tested HIV-positive.

The industry news magazine AVN said she was a Canadian woman who had been in a scene involving unprotected sex, and had been in the adult film industry for only three months.

It was unclear how much impact the work stoppage would have on the $4 billion to $13 billion-a-year industry, which is centered in the San Fernando Valley and cranks out 4,000 movies annually.

The porn industry's largest company, Vivid Entertainment, told The Associated Press in a statement that it would continue production, arguing that they already have safety measures in place. However, late Thursday Adult Video News posted a statement from Vivid spokeswoman Ellie Reeve on its Web site, saying the company had decided to cease production.

Jill Kelly, a former adult performer turned producer, said she was delaying about eight movies.

"It's going to hurt some people (financially) but who cares?" she said of the moratorium. "It's about safety now and about people's lives."

Well, they haven't had one of these in awhile. It's pretty surprising that this doesn't happen more often really. Anyway, I hope you all have a video that you really like, because it will be a little while before you can get yourself a newer one.